Thursday, September 20, 2012

Doctrine and Covenants 6:5-8

"Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you.Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion;Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be unto you; and if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation."Doctrine and Covenants 6:5-8

This is cool stuff. This particular section was originally directed at Oliver Cowdery, but as Nephi suggests, we will liken all scriptures unto ourselves. :)These verses start out with something that we've heard before... ask, and you shall receive. Then it goes beyond that. After we ask, then we get some more advice from God: Keep the commandments. Work on bringing forth Zion. Seek wisdom, not riches. Riches come later, and one of the biggest treasures is eternal life. What we truly desire is what we'll receive... and a hint. If we desire, we can be the means of doing much good.These are really cool things, and I love that God gives us some hints about what to ask for. Asking God for things is almost like having three wishes. :) And we have to be careful what we ask for. It's so easy to ask for immediate gratification type things... but if we take God's advice and seek wisdom instead, we start to change ourselves. We become less shallow, and that greater depth leaves us room for greater blessings. :) As we learn more about the world, about ourselves, and about life, then we gain a greater appreciation for anything that we want to ask for, because we see how those things can change the world, rather than just what we can get out of them short-term. As we gain more and more wisdom, we'll be able to make a difference, for other people, in more and more ways.Today, let's ask God for wisdom. Let's work on doing good for others. Let's grow and learn and start stretching towards Zion.

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The scriptural commentary presented here is based on books of scripture recognized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so you'll see scriptures from several books like the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, etc.

This collection started in 1999 as the Scripture of the Day email list (before there was a blog). The search on this page doesn't always work for the older scriptures, but you can still get to them in the archive. I am in the process of adding all the older content.